Changing Conceptions of Writing through Situated Activity in a Geology Major

Abstract

This essay explores how students' misconceptions about writing might be transformed into accurate threshold concepts of writing through disciplinary writing experiences. Through an activity analysis of a geology major and students’ writing in that program, I demonstrate that these students' conceptions of writing changed through their legitimate peripheral participation in geological activity. Students' learning in the major situated writing within the activity of professional geological communities, and they recognized both how writing constructs and circulates knowledge within their discipline and their need for writing to enable participation in those communities. Their example suggests that WID programs attend to conceptual change and legitimate peripheral participation as essential mechanisms for creating transformative writing experiences that enable student learning. Scholars exploring learning and expertise, threshold concepts, and science education have dedicated much time to exploring the impact accurate conceptions and misconceptions have on student learning (Ambrose et al., 2010; Meyer & Land, 2006b;National Research Council, 1997; Leonard et al., 2014). Their takeaway is this: throughout their education and lives, students often and easily develop misconceptions about all sorts of phenomena that can compound over time, persist throughout their education, and interfere with their learning. Without confronting those misconceptions and exploring alternative, accurate conceptions to replace them, students may have trouble deeply integrating their learning for future application or may only see narrow opportunities for application of that learning. These conclusions carry important implications for how writing pedagogy engages students’ prior knowledge and experiences in courses that introduce new writing knowledge to students. This body of scholarship pushes curriculum to consider the problem of conceptual change: how can teachers of writing challenge misconceptions and encourage students to transform those beliefs into accurate threshold concepts of writing? I argue in this essay that curricula built on situated writing experiences can meet this need. In addition to enabling students to learn effective writing practices, these experiences also enable conceptual change that encourages their learning about writing. These programs ask students to learn about and engage in activity similar to those of the professional communities they seek to join. Students use similar mediational tools on similar disciplinary objects in pursuit of similar professional outcomes and goals. In turn, their work with writing becomes more transformative, moving students through threshold conceptions to develop accurate representations of writing’s use and function in professional and disciplinary practice. Changing Conceptions of Writing 321 ATD, VOL18(ISSUE3/4) To make this argument, I examine the context and experiences of geology students in a geology and earth science program that has vertically integrated writing instruction into its curriculum. These situated experiences of writing helped geology students transform generic conceptions of writing as expression into accurate, threshold concepts, such as that writing mediates disciplinary activity and that writing plays a role in forming professional identities (Bazerman, 2015; Estrem, 2015). Accordingly, they value writing for their future careers and believe they need to develop their writing abilities to contribute successfully to geological knowledge and communities. The experiences of these geology majors suggested that these students negotiate conceptual change around writing to arrive at these productive outcomes for two reasons. First, coursework in geology situates writing within the activity of professional geological communities. Students, faculty, and the curriculum as a whole share a similar motive and object of activity as professional activity systems: production, promotion, and application of geological knowledge. Students learn about writing as a mediating tool in service of this motive and engage in learning to write more seriously because of this function. Second, through their legitimate peripheral participation in geological communities sponsored by the program (Lave & Wenger, 1991), students negotiate their developing identities as geology professionals and recognize writing as a necessary practice to participate in the disciplinary community. Students see clear connections between the specific writing practice of geology and their desired professional identities in communities of geological activity as scientists and geologists. Through these experiences, students developed accurate conceptions about writing that include writing’s mediating function for disciplinary activity. Through the example of these students, I call attention to the need for curricular strategies that encourage conceptual change around writing and demonstrate how situated, disciplinary writing experiences accomplish that goal. Legitimate peripheral participation through writing enables richer understanding of both the production of knowledge in a discipline but also of writing’s mediating function within those disciplinary systems. As students learn subject matter expertise through and with writing, they recognize how writing enables their own future ability to contribute as professionals in that subject. In other words, they learn what writing does, how it works in their field, and the work they can accomplish with and because of writing. These realizations come through their active learning experiences that challenge their misconceptions and transform them into accurate conceptions of writing—in this case—in the sciences. I begin by defining the activity system which the geology department has created in its curricular and extra-curricular programs, describing the geology major’s writing curricula and the experiences that students shared from that coursework. I then examine how geology students describe their changing conceptions around writing’s mediational role in their discipline and the disciplinary nature of writing. Two case studies demonstrate further how these experiences in the geology major have encouraged negotiations around conceptual change and identity formation. Their examples reveal how geology students changed their conceptions about writing, developing a disciplinarily-situated relationship with writing. Finally, I describe how these reports reveal an experience of legitimate peripheral participation in geological communities. Engagement in and imaginations about these communities encourage students to build their professional identities and understand how writing enables their successful (future) participation in those communities. Their experiences illustrate the mechanisms that provide writing-in-the-disciplines programs the potential for transformative writing experiences: conceptual change and legitimate peripheral participation. Programs that attend to their students’ ability to engage in the activity of their discipline and make visible writing’s mediational function in that activity will yield students who recognize the value of writing and engage learning about writing more deeply.